Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/444

416 Each of these divisions merely represents the extent of the influence of each local centre of industry established after the arts of casting bronze became known over the greater part of Europe. Each of these centres arose from certain peculiar advantages. For the Scandinavian, as we remarked above, there was the amber; for the Hungarian the tin mines of Bohemia and Saxony; for the French those of Brittany and of the central plateau of France; for Italy those of Tuscany; while our imperfect knowledge of the mineral riches of ancient Greece renders it impossible for us to assign a reason why it should have been a centre.

We must now pass on to the consideration of gold and amber. Gold is widely distributed in Europe in the older rocks, and from its brilliant colour must have attracted the attention of man probably before the Bronze age. It occurs in the north of Scotland, in Wales, in Cornwall, and in the Wicklow mountains in Ireland, and from its very general association with tin in the alluvial gravels, it probably led to the discovery of the essential constituent of bronze. It was used for earrings, pendants, and necklaces, for ornamenting suits of armour and shields, and for making cups in Britain in the Bronze and Iron ages. The number of gold articles found in Ireland is probably due to its former abundance in that island. Its wide distribution in Europe renders it of little importance in an enquiry into the commercial relations of the inhabitants of Europe in the Bronze age.